Reassure me on this decision

[Steve LaClair]

Well I just got an offer from a co-worker to buy my custom pc setup for $700, which is almost what I paid for it. I figured this would be the last time I would get an opportunity to get this much out of it. I figured the 1.6 g5 would be in my price range but would this be a step up in performance to what i'm working with now?

asus p4s800 board
p4 2.6ghz 800fsb
1 gig pc3200 ram
160 gig 7200rpm

I mean, I realize i'll be diving into the 64bit realm which will be a huge setup and I'm going to go for it regardless. But should I be expecting performance gains if any.

[Dave Perry]

Steve,

Welcome to the Mac world!

You most certainly will enjoy performance increases. Mainly in the stability of the OS. OS X is much more stable than windows. Now I know there are lots of windows users that'll say a properly maintained windows machine works fine, but it's such a hassle to maintain them, as I'm sure you already know. I switched from windows 2 years ago and have never looked back, and I'm still using a lowly G3.

Visit the Apple disussions at apple.com for comprhensive support from the Mac community and have fun.

[Glenn Chan]

Your PC machine will be faster performance-wise. It's hard to compare since the programs you want to use may not be on both platforms. But generally you should find that the PC is faster for rendering tasks and real-time capabilities.

As for OS stability, both winXP and OS X are very stable now (my record is windows 0 and OS X 2 crashes). The programs however are not. A lot of Windows programs tend to be flaky, although there are also flaky Mac apps too (i.e. FCP3 before patching, OS X killing firewire drives, etc.).

In my opinion OS X is a lot nicer than Windows. Windows is very quirky. If you want to go in and make changes to your Windows system then you'll have to deal with a lot of different interfaces. On the Mac side you really don't need to do that, although you may have to do the repair permissions and preference file trashing crap.

Macs are much less likely to get viruses and malware/adware/spyware. On the Windows side you have lots of programs that try to take over your system (i.e. Real Player).

I mean, I realize i'll be diving into the 64bit realm which will be a huge setup and I'm going to go for it regardless. But should I be expecting performance gains if any.

There's no true 64bit OS out yet. OS X can take advantage of >4GB of memory, but that isn't very useful unless you use huge Photoshop files. On the PC side 64-bit Windows is still in beta.

If you use your computer only occaisionally I really wouldn't bother switching. You could save time with FCP/Mac but is that really worth the price difference? Your money may be better spent elsewhere, but depends highly on how often you use computer and what you use it for.

[Steve LaClair]

Thanks for the replies guys. The main reason besides finding a buyer for my pc is that I seen how FCP operates and I fell in love. I've been on Premiere since v4.1 was out and now Pro, even that is causing a lot of weird little problems and I'm just done dealing with it. I need something new and exciting.

[Ken Tanaka]

Steve did not actually declare that he was switching to Mac OS; he merely declared that he was selling his PC. The fact that he posted here leads us to assume he's switching, but he might have just mis-posted.

Under that assumption...

Steve, we really don't know enough about what you do to judge your decision. That you are selling a "custom PC" suggests that you are a young hobbyist. If so, take my remarks for whatever they may be worth as I'm an 'old fart' and do not play games with my computers.

I switched from the Windows world several years ago. After being with the "PC" world since it began (actually, even before) I had reluctance. But building a stable video editing platform on even the most robust, super-charged Windows system just became an exercise in pointless futility for me. I simply could not get the interrupt-driven Windows operating system (Win 2000, at the time) to a stable, predictable point. And I spent tens of thousands over several years to that end.

Bottom line for me: I use my Macs for everything, including video editing and have never, ever looked back at what I left behind. Life on the electronic front became dramatically better for me after the switch.

Here's to hoping you experience the same effect.

[Graeme Nattress]

If you want to get a mac, get a dual G5 2ghz (unless a better machine comes out tomorrow) and pay the extra for the 9800 card because the new motion app, which I'm sure you'll want to get will work better with the better graphics card.

OS X really runs best with dual processors, so don't get a single processor machine, although I'm very happy running OS X on a G3 laptop and G4 iMac.

Graeme

[Dave Perry]

"...and I'm going to go for it regardless"

Actually he did say he was switching, and I thoroughly agree with Ken. You can play the numbers games with proc speed and how long it takes to render a filter, fade or color correction, but in my experience, the Mac is faster by virtue of what you can get done with it in the same amount of time as pc. My computing experience has improved since switching to the Mac. The computer is no longer in the way of things.

Ken also brings up a good point and reinforces my opinion that Macs are actually cheaper, when he mentions the tens of thousands he's spent over the years. There my be an initially larger amount of $$ laid out for a Mac, but both time and money are saved the minute you start using one.

I'm not too good with all of the technical points to back up my assertions, all I can say is that my computing experience is much better and I no longer NEED to know all of the tech stuff since switching to the Mac.

[Steve LaClair]

Thanks for the support guys. I know I'm only a 21 year old hobbist shooting skate videos, so i'm on the other side of the spectrum than all the professionals on here. So I don't need any rediculous systems that can whip out my last minute 3d render by close of business day.

All I really want is a better computing experience, and from everything i've heard that is just what I'll get. My current windows setup has taken every beating I have put to it, and I was very impressed with winXP but Premiere Pro is one of the most unstable peices of software i've ever worked with in my opinion. And I have just fell in love with watching fcp in action and I realized that's where I want to be.

Pretty much my main concern is that I wouldn't be taking too much of a hit performance wise, and far beyond dv editing, but just every day operations like web browsing, word processing, etc.

[Brian Pink]

for day to day stuff, you could get a 3 year old mac and it would be fine. the G5 will be great! enjoy!